Merry Christmas Bright Eyes
by Gem6
Summary: Christmassy fic, written for a competition.Claire remembers a childhood sweetheart...will they ever meet again?


This was written for a christmas competition at FarieTv, I'm not back for good sadly, hoping to be back posting real soon

* * *

She looks around and all she sees are happy couples at Christmas- she knows no happiness anymore, there's most of the people in the station- there's Brownlow, Meadows and Deakin, even fusty old Bob Cryer has a wife.

Fourteen years ago she had a boyfriend, but they went their separate ways as she went off to Uni and he went back to his native homeland. Eleven years ago she heard he had been killed in the line of duty, shot as he protected a colleague.

* * *

She smiled satisfied as she arranged the last rope of blue tinsel on the thirty foot tree, standing back she admired her handiwork with a satisfied sigh, somewhere behind her a phone rang reminding her she still had work to do before the party tonight.

Back in the office she looked at the mountain of paperwork on her desk and sighed for the second time that day, she had a little over three hours to complete it as she needed to be there to open the party tonight. First though she decided she needed a coffee, coffee was the answer to her paperwork nightmares.

An hour and a half later she was almost finished, just a few witness statements left to go through; her concentration was interrupted by Kerry and the others leaving the office to get ready for the party.

As the office emptied and all became silent, the remaining paperwork was quickly finished off and tidied away, a quick check of the time revealed it was half past five, only two hours to go until party time.

Heading back to the grand hall, she checked the lights on the tree worked for the hundredth time that day, nothing could or would go wrong now, she was almost certain.

Back at home, everything was laid out, hair straighteners; make up, clothes and various other bits and bobs. Slipping into her bath robe a CD of relaxing music was put on to help her get in the mood for tonight. Twenty minutes later she had showered; part dressed and was straightening her hair.

Twenty to seven her dress was put on and the finishing touches were added, she admired her stunning figure and the way her beautiful ruby dress clung to her curves in all the right places.

At exactly seven she left the house, ten past seven she arrived at the hotel, everything was still as she left it.

She helped the caterers lay out the buffet and set up the tab behind the bar, at twenty five past the lights on the tree were switched on, twenty six minutes past the door were unlocked and the wait for the guests to arrive began.

The first guests to arrive were officers from the 'B' relief that she didn't know, soon guests were pouring in and finally everyone was there by eight fifteen. At eight thirty the DCI took to the stage;

"Good evening everyone and welcome, I'm going to hand over to our organiser" He handed her the microphone as she took the stage

"I'd just like to welcome everyone to the annual SunHill Christmas Ball, I saw last years party and this year I wanted to make it something special which is why it's a black tie ball, enjoy yourselves" She stepped down and joined Kerry and Mickey

"This must have cost a fortune; the tickets were only three pounds"

"It did but I wanted to make it special" She wandered away to look at the tree.

A few minutes later the drummer from the band she had hired cam up to her and explained that the lead singer had been held up and would she mind standing in for a few songs. Luckily she agreed and joined the band up on stage, their first song was Dancing in the Moonlight which went down well with the crowd, a few songs later the lead singer had turned up so she could rejoin the party.

* * *

Standing by the Christmas tree she recalled her first true love and how over time she had never forgotten him, she thought of him every year without fail at Christmas. She wondered whether she would have got in touch with him had he not been killed, she wondered whether they would have got back together had he not been killed.

She thought of all the money that had gone into organising this ball and she wondered how many people would remember it the next morning, it had taken a little over three months organise fully due to ill health

Somewhere behind her she could hear Kerry talking to someone and then she heard footsteps behind her

"You did a grand job decorating the tree"

"Thanks" She smiled without turning to look at the speaker

"Turn around Bright Eyes?" The voice said quietly

She thought for a moment, Bright Eyes was her nickname when she was a young girl, how did the person next to her know her nickname, slowly she turned around and there stood next to her large as life was her childhood sweetheart

"How…. I mean you got killed….shot while on duty….eleven years ago" She stuttered making a total fool of herself

"Yeah I got shot, but I survived, you got killed by a deranged gunman a few months ago"

"He did shoot me three months ago, bastard emptied five rounds into me, got the scars to prove it but I'm still here" She threw her arms around him

"How are you? We've got so much to catch up on; I mean when did you join SunHill? How come we've never met?" He had so many questions for her to answer

"We can talk later, lets just enjoy the party" They joined Kerry and Mickey and answered their questions.

Later on they took to the dance floor and she showed off her dance skills, learnt as a youngster but retained and still practised to this day. Pretty soon they were the talk of the party, him in his black tuxedo and her in her ruby ballgown, entwined in each others arms.

"You know what….. I missed you these last fourteen years"

"I missed you too, I thought of you every Christmas, dare I say it….. I love you John"

"I think you'll find I still love you too Claire"

All around the room the murmured greeting was 'Merry Christmas'


End file.
